In Mark's own words: "It's amazing what happens when it's your day. I got a terrible tee shot off 14 into the middle of about 200 trees, but got lucky with a clear shot out. I hit the approach shot just short of the green and chipped in for a pretty lucky birdie - it was the second time I have chipped in on 14 this week."
Mark acknowledged his good fortune in getting the best of the conditions, but when he described the course as "there for the taking", he was perhaps guilty of a little excess modesty. Because the fact is that with one notable exception, none of the other players around Mark were shooting anything like his score.
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Fiancee Helen Quirke shares Mark Brown's pleasure at a course record 65. [china.org.cn]
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That one exception was Australian Ashley Hall. Starting two strokes better off than Brown on +2, Hall too made early birdies, and reached the turn at four-under for the day. He birdied 13 as well, but stuttered with a bogey on 14. Even a birdie on 16 offered him the prospect of a good rather than an exceptional round, but on the par-5 18th he too took advantage of a significant stroke of good fortune.
Hall is a big lad, and one of the few in the field that can even see the green on 18 in two. He decided to let rip with his second even though he knew he would not quite get up, looking for a third from the fringes or from the bunker in front of the green to give him a chance of birdie. In fact he was left with a 30-yard chip that he holed for an eagle. That took him to a share of Mark Brown's newly established course record, but having started the round two strokes to the good, more importantly it took him from the same overall score as Mark to five-under and a share of second place.
Genuine low scores have been few and far between in the course of the tournament – at that point including Hall's and Brown's scores there had been only four rounds of 67 or better, the other two coming from Markus Brier on day one and Paul McGinley on day two. Apart from Englishman David Dixon, who finished with a 67 for 4-under, none of the other players on the course were coming anywhere close to that target. We were therefore facing the intriguing possibility that Hall especially, and perhaps even Brown, might find themselves around the top of the leaderboard by the end of the day.
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Delight too for Australia's Ashley Hall, with a course-record 65 for 5-under. [china.org.cn]
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That impression was maintained as the leaders took to the course, and all the way through their front nines. Markus Brier and Simon Dyson both bogeyed the first. So did Ho-sung Choi, and that left Hall in a share of the lead. Nobody, it appeared, could really get to grips with the course, post a few birdies, and establish some clear water at the front. McGinley birdied the opener, but fell away and ended up back on even-par with a 3-over 75.
Then, with most of the field already back in the clubhouse, the second act of the day's drama began. Playing partners Richard Finch of England and Spain's Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano had both made early bogeys, but suddenly Finch's game began to click. He birdied 7, then 8, then 9, and he just kept on going - in all, six consecutive birdies. That took him from 1-under to 7-under in six holes, and a two-stroke lead.
But the Spaniard was on Finch's heels. He had recovered his dropped shot with two birdies at 4 and 7, and now, when Finch could only make five for par on the 13th, Castano eagled to join Finch in the lead. Then he birdied 14 against Finch's par, and suddenly it was Castano in the lead at 8-under.
